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1 Robert Carroll, Senator McCain's and Senator Obama's Tax Plans: Different Roads Taken 1 (2008)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/ffbdhxz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: rAX FOUNDATION Senator McCain's and Senator Obama's Tax Plans: Different Roads Taken Fiscal Fact No. 13 7 by Robert Carroll August 15, 2008 Both candidates purport to address some key areas of economic insecurity to the average American: health care, energy costs, college costs, housing devaluation, and low and/or stagnant wages, to name a few. But the candidates differ dramatically in their use of tax policy to address these issues. Senator Obama has included a set of carefully targeted tax proposals that narrowly aim benefits to specific types of taxpayers, while Senator McCain provides broad tax relief with benefits that are indirect. In both cases, tax relief is provided to the vast majority of the electorate. Table 1 below lists the major individual tax provisions put forward by the two candidates along with the price tag of each as estimated by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. What is striking about this list is that Senator McCain has only two major proposals that affect individuals directly: (1) the expansion of the dependent exemption, and (2) a new health care tax credit. In contrast, Senator Obama has at least seven major provisions that focus on a variety of issues, such as housing, education, child care, and low-income work. Both candidates also extend the major provisions included in the Bush tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003, although Senator Obama limits the extension to those with incomes below $250,000.